My daughter has had a pretty rough time of things lately, with trying to find a job, caring for me and my disabilities and the GCSE's fiasco. So in a bid to give her something to smile about I'm hoping to build her a fairly nice rig.

I am hoping to be able to scavenge a few parts that are laying around the house get a lot from ST and maybe if I'm lucky a few sponsor donations. If anyone is selling any old radiators during an upgrade please PM me as I may be very interested if the prices are right.

I will be basing this build around a Coolermaster Staker 832 Nvidia Edition that was donated to me by Stuart over at Wabsys in Wakefield, W Yorks.

Also a big thanks to the kind folks over at Aqua Tunning who have offered a nice discount on all AlphaCool and Phobya products in this build

Well here we go the starting case pics..... as soon as I have more info and some ideas have been drwan up I will post them here for to all laugh about ermmm I mean read.

The top of the case where the power button and top USB ports go was damaged on the case. From what I could make out the previous owner had used it as an ash tray ...even to the point of actually putting cigs out on the thing :culpability:.

So I set about repairing the damage next to the power button which involved sanding and scraping the damaged area then mixing the shavings with superglue and then filling the holes.

After that it was more sanding and then time to apply the carbon fibre film.

I then moved onto the actual surrond for the front panel as this was damaged around the edges and needed the same sort of treatment

Then came the time to make the Acrylic HDD holder which im going to locate in the top of the case where the green mesh is currently. Ill replace the mesh with an acrylic window which I will form out of 3mm acrylic. Im will also we adding LEDs to the HDD caddy so they light up and shine through the acrylic and defuse the light a little.

First of all I had to cut the acrylic down to a rough size then mark it up where I needed to bend it to get the flat " U " shape i wanted.

Then I clamped it between two pieces of wood and heated it up using my mini blowtorch. WARNING if using a mini blowtorch be careful and dont get the flame too close or the air will get in and bubbles will form in the acrylic VERY easily

After a few trial runs to get everything right I made the first bend....

Then the second bend....

In the end it came out quite well...

Now I have to cut and shape the front of the HDD caddy so it will fit in fine, plus I have to shave the top a little so the HDD caddy and the window fit together properly. Also I have to finish the Front panel trimming....so hopefully ill get more pics up soon.

__________________
Do not let anything good in life pass you by. Cherish it with all of your heart, because before you know it even life will have passed you by. And if you let all those things pass you by? The only thing filling your heart will be deep sadness and regret. So whatever you do, hold on, and never let go.

Wasnt blaming you, thought it had come with the case, knew it wasnt gonna stay. That being said kudos to you. Id take week with cardboard. Im just too meticulus. Thus why i like sw. Can make it perfect, render, if its not good take out certain parts and redo. And i can get the parts pre modeled. Weeeeeee!

__________________
Do not let anything good in life pass you by. Cherish it with all of your heart, because before you know it even life will have passed you by. And if you let all those things pass you by? The only thing filling your heart will be deep sadness and regret. So whatever you do, hold on, and never let go.

I tried to use Sketch up but couldnt figure it out so I went down the make the rads etc route. It usually takes me around 3 hours to make an exact replica of a radiator im going to use as I like to get them to the exact size.

eh. try out the tutorials, they actually helped me out. but what ever you do, don't go straight from sketchup to a high-end one. learning curve? hah! more like rip out the sketchup knowledge and start over. sketchup is so bad if you use the "basics" of it you keep running in circles in inventor, SW etc. but for free, just use the tutorials. its actually easier than cardboard if you start with components and try different ways of assembling them... if you do it from scratch... well... god have mercy on anyone around you

__________________
Do not let anything good in life pass you by. Cherish it with all of your heart, because before you know it even life will have passed you by. And if you let all those things pass you by? The only thing filling your heart will be deep sadness and regret. So whatever you do, hold on, and never let go.

As I've got the caddy sorted out I moved on to the new roof fan location.

So I removed the cross member where the PSU sits

and at the same time I took out the runner at the bottom.

it was then a simple case of measuring and cutting some 3mm acrylic to fit

then locating the best place for the fan

and then came the painful part lol cutting the acrylic and then the amazingly hard alloy ( I honestly didn't think my tool was going to go through it ...but in the end I won...yes finally me 1 case 0 )

After that episode it was time to cover the acrylic with the carbon fibre ....

All in all im quite happy with it and I have got the small end piece made as well.....I also checked for clearance with the PSU and phew just right lol....

Next up came the hard part...making the window for above the HDD caddy I have made in the roof of the case. The first job was to mark where the roof of the case bent.

After that went to crap I did what any sane person would do...... I chucked in in the oven at gas mark 6 for 4 minutes then slid it into a mould I had rigged then clamped like hell. I don't have any pictures of that thoug...if the wife found out she would KILL me :mad-new:

The end result was bingo......

All in all im pretty please, however I might get another piece of acrylic and give it another go just to see if i can get it perfect lol.......thanks to thoose that are reading and stay tuned folks.

Wasnt blaming you, thought it had come with the case, knew it wasnt gonna stay. That being said kudos to you. Id take week with cardboard. Im just too meticulus. Thus why i like sw. Can make it perfect, render, if its not good take out certain parts and redo. And i can get the parts pre modeled. Weeeeeee!

I don't mean to jack your thread, but where do you get pre-modeled components for SW?

Also awesome progress mate, its cool to see mods in cases that aren't used often!

__________________
Do not let anything good in life pass you by. Cherish it with all of your heart, because before you know it even life will have passed you by. And if you let all those things pass you by? The only thing filling your heart will be deep sadness and regret. So whatever you do, hold on, and never let go.

Well here we go its peaniut butter update time. The first rad has turned up a nice shiney Alphacool NexXxoS ST30 240mm which will be fitted into the bottom of the case.

So first came the marking up for the tubing holes

and then making sure the rad was seating right in the prefered place

and after some time ( many swear words ) I had this

And when fitted to the case its self it looks better

Then came the Carbon Fibre time ....which is where it starts to come together i think

Ill be sorting the rad grill to tidy everything up then it will be time to fit the 120mm rad on the rear of the case and also the front 360mm rad with grill. I am hoping to be able to do this over the next few weeks, money permitting.

I hope folks like what they've seen so far as im still new to this modding lark and learning everyday.